Conventionally, filling a can with ingredients-contained soup or the like such as curry, minestrone, pork juice, stew, and so on, in which meat, or vegetables are mixed into liquid, to make canned food, and filling a vacuum-pack bag with them have been carried out by two steps, i.e., one step of filling ingredients and the other step of filling soup.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional filling apparatus. An operator takes a fixed quantity of ingredients out of a container of ingredients and puts them into a can, after which the can filled with ingredients is moved to a conveyor, and a fixed quantity of soup liquid is filled into the can from a filling apparatus.
Filling the soup liquid is carried out by taking in a fixed quantity of soup liquid through a check valve by a piston pump from a soup container, and pouring it into the can filled with ingredients through the check valve. This method has a problem such that since a container or can in which ingredients are received is open, foreign matter such as an insect or bug is possibly mixed in or soup or the like becomes air-oxidized. In addition, there is a further problem in that since work is carried out by the two steps, the work efficiency is poor.
No problem occurs if both the ingredients and soup liquid can be filled into the can together. However, if doing so, it cannot be subdivided into soup or the like containing a fixed quantity of ingredients, resulting in clogging of ingredients in the check valve to lead to trouble of the apparatus. Therefore, work has been carried out by the two steps as described above.
This invention is intended to solve the problems as noted above. An object of the invention is to provide a subdividing and filling apparatus for liquid food capable of subdividing and filling ingredients and soup liquid together at a high speed.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a subdividing and filling apparatus entirely free from occurrence of troubles such that ingredients are caught in the rotary valve.